A seinen manga (with an anime adaptation) by Katori Masaru that blends the game of shogi with a murder mystery.

''Shion no Ou'' is the story of a young girl named Shion Yasuoka. When she was a very young child, [[BreakTheCutie she witnessed the brutal murder of her parents]]. Oddly, the murderer leaves her alive but takes the "king" piece from the shogi board (the Japanese rendition of chess). The resulting trauma leaves her [[CuteMute unable to speak]], forcing her to communicate with people by writing her thoughts out on a notebook (... no, not ''[[Manga/DeathNote THAT]]'' notebook).

After her parents' murder, Shion is later adopted by her next-door neighbor and family friend, Shinji Yasuoka, who is a ''kishi'', or professional shogi player. Shion continues to play shogi, learning from Yasuoka out of both her own love of the game and her desire to discover the identity of the murderer.

An anime adaptation, produced by Studio DEEN, was released in late 2007 and finished up in March of 2008, following the current storyline of the manga fairly faithfully. The manga ended a few months afterwards.

Compare with ''Manga/HikaruNoGo'', which has a similar premise, only with Go instead of shogi.

----!!This series provides examples of:* ArtShift: Whenever Shion recovers a memory of the night when her parents were murdered, the art style becomes sketchy and much DarkerAndEdgier.* AttractiveBentGender: [[spoiler:Ayumi''-chan'']] is very, very cute... and many oblivious members of the cast, both male and female, comment on this.* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:Hani Satoru's use of the free-for-all shogi tournament as a means to find his lover's murderer.]] It's slightly more complicated than that, though. If the killer didn't show up the plan would fall flat. * CuteMute: The eponymous Shion, who lost the ability to speak after witnessing the murder of her parents.* BreakTheCutie: All three main characters, at least once.* GenkiGirl: Shion is a non-vocal variant of this. * GratuitousEnglish: Lots of it in the opening theme "Lady Love" by J-Rock band '''Rize''', not quite as much in the ending theme "My Dear Friend" by J-Pop artist '''Thelma Aoyama'''.* HotBlooded: Many of the ''kishi'' can get ''very'' enthusiastic about the game. The animation style used when the players make their moves further emphasizes this.* ImportantHaircut: [[spoiler: Ayumi when he decides [[EstablishingCharacterMoment to play shouji as a boy]]]]* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Kamizono 9-dan shouts a lot, speaks very bluntly, looks very intimidating and has a reputation as a merciless ''kishi''... but (almost) any of the scenes between him and Ayumi show that he's far from a bad guy. ** [[spoiler:Satoru]] also counts.* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Shion can only remember bits and pieces about the murder of her parents that she witnessed.* MarshmallowHell: Saori hugging Shion on the first episode.* MundaneMadeAwesome: Shogi of course.* OffModel: Studio DEEN seems to have a problem with this. The first few episodes are rendered in great detail, paying close attention to character hair and especially the faces of the older male characters. This degrades over time and for several episodes the animation quality drops noticeably before getting better again halfway through the series. It never did reach the same level of detail that it started with, but it did get much better.* PsychoticSmirk: The killer and later [[spoiler: Hani-meijin]].* TheRival: Played straight to start with Ayumi vs. Shion; later averted [[spoiler:when the two become close friends]].* StalkerShrine: A wall plastered with photos of Shion is shown in several of the early episodes.* TalkingWithSigns: the method of communication Shion prefers.* TeenGenius: Played straight ''and'' subverted; [[spoiler:in the free-for-all shogi tournament, fifth-grader Suo Honma beats a ''9-dan professional kishi''.]] It's subverted because [[spoiler:he used a strategy common among Internet shogi players that his opponent had no knowledge of. If the 9-dan had known about the strategy, he would not have lost. Honma later loses to Shion because of this lack of experience.]] * UnsettlingGenderReveal: [[spoiler:Saito Ayumi]], though the story doesn't hide it from the viewers for long. Satoru [[spoiler:''intentionally'' drops this particular Bridget on Nikaido Saori]] for what seemed like no reason at all, though it may just be part of his [[spoiler:BatmanGambit to find out who killed the Ishiwataris]].* WholesomeCrossdresser: [[spoiler:Ayumi. He does it to get into shogi tournaments earlier than he would have been able to had he not passed himself as female.]]* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Ayumi. It's not blue-black, it's jarringly bright blue. Hani-meijin also has obviously ''purple'' hair.* ZettaiRyouiki: Displayed frequently by both Shion and Ayumi; Saori's skirt is usually too long for this.----